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Park Ridge officers’ initiative leads to bike-theft suspect
Updated: August 20, 2012 11:22AM
PARK RIDGE — Park Ridge police successfully tracked down a bicycle that went missing late last month and perhaps the culprit, too.
Roberto Rich, 27, of the 1400 block of S. Canal, Chicago, was arrested and charged with felony theft July 10 in connection with an incident that occurred two weeks earlier when an unattended bike was allegedly stolen from the first block of S. Summit Avenue in Park Ridge.
According to police the owner had parked the bicycle at 12:30 p.m. June 27 in an attached garage and left the overhead door open while he went inside the house.
He returned 10 minutes later and found his $425 Gary Fisher bicycle missing.
The owner filed a report with police, who investigated the matter, said Deputy Police Chief Lou Jogmen.
Detectives soon discovered the bike in a local pawn shop and were able to trace the sale back to Rich.
Jogmen credits the recovery to descriptive information about the bike provided by the owner to police, and to the responding officers’ diligence in not writing off the crime as just another stolen bike.
“To toot our own horn, it was a nice job,” he said. “They stuck with it.”
Jogmen said Rich has not admitted to, nor been charged, in connection with other bicycle thefts.
No bond or court information related to his July 10 arrest was available.
